If you haven’t been to Las Vegas for a while, I thought I’d record a drive from the Welcome Sign to the Stratosphere hotel with local radio stations playing in the background. Shot during CES.
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Nice vid. Do you have one from 10 years ago? Imagine 100 years from now. If youtube actually keeps this stuff ‘forever” videos such as this one would be a treasuretrove for history lovers, city planners, the curious.
Have seen listed but not watched: “Blowing Up Vegas” regarding the demolition of hotels to make room for bigger ones. Of interest is the amount of bare ground in your video. The “economics” of Vegas have never made sense to me. Indian casinos, lottery should have wiped it out by now?
I was expecting to be able to jump out of the car, run across the street, and jack a better car. Why couldn’t I even change to radio station?
. . . and what’s with this “staying with traffic” thing? I couldn’t even ram a few cars, make a u-turn and drive up on the sidewalk. This game sucks man!
Strange, I know I ought to be impressed or something but I don’t like looking at asphalt and you pretty much have the same businesses there as here and as for gambling I HATE to loose. By and large Lost Wages is not attractive to me.
Name another city that has a high tension power line running down the main drag. You would think they would have buried that little piece of infrastructure by now. Palms on the left…power line on the right.
I used to live in Las Vegas NV starting in 2001, and moved back to New Mexico in 2005. While the Strip hasn’t changed all that much from 2005 to now, there are new buildings, and others that have disappeared.
If I make a trip to Vegas anytime soon, I’ll probably stay in Downtown rather than the overpriced Strip, and visit the big hotels by bus or cab.
Incidentally, Indian casinos haven’t been that big of a draw, at least in the Las Vegas area. I guess it’s the Strip vibe, plus the draw of the locals casinos.
I went to Vegas recently after a 10 year hiatus. Guess I’m getting old….er. I really didn’t appreciate the $15 per night charge for wi-fi and the $60 per meal for not so great food. The casinos seemed empty while the sidewalk was rockin. Margaritaville was the best attraction. I think it will be a while till I go there again. The free drinks are gone, seems like the fun is too.
I saw a sign for Barry Manilow. That’s enough to keep me from wanting to go.
RENO IS #1..
I’m guessing that it was with a camera that has a video “feature” due to all the moiré in repeating patterns.
No gold pavements…
Nice video but you should have done the drive around 6:00 or 6:30 AM. LVB is a completely different place depending on the time of day. At night, it’s a huge river of tourists. Early morning you see the shift workers and the homeless.
If you want a different view of Las Vegas watch the local TV. The stink of desperation is an endless theme. Everything seems to be sponsored by bankruptcy lawyers and other ambulance-chaser types. Even for “these days” economically Las Vegas is one of the ground zero places when it comes to where our economy got nuked and although the buildings haven’t crumbled the occupants certainly have suffered enough.
I’ve been going to Las Vegas yearly since the late 1980’s. I firmly believe that every U.S. citizen needs to go there once. But only once.
I’ve been going to Las Vegas on business long enough to have seen it change. And I had the privilege of meeting our esteemed host at a Comdex panel discussion meet ‘n greet a long time ago (think OS/2, John).
Some things have not changed. Mr. Dvorak is still cranky. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
#7 AlanB
http://myspace.com/video/vid/43011673
Myspace? Must be some new service.
I’m heading there in May to the Vdara. Nice preview!
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Looks like you maintained a pretty steady pace up the strip hitting all the green lights.
Our beloved President has said nobody should go to Las Vegas. Instead, we should go to Spain, like tubby.
Are those trucks that just mobile billboards? They don’t look like they can transport much, with such a small and narrow shape of the back.
I love Las Vegas. Don’t really gamble (few bucks in slot here or there). It’s just a SUPER GREAT people watching city. I love to get a coffee and just wander down the strip and observe. Also the buildings are fascinating. Tacky, big, strange, odd layouts, etc. Just fun from an architectural point of view.
I like cities like this that you at least KNOW where you are. You won’t wake up in Vegas and have that “am I in Cleveland or is this Chicago, or Philadelphia” sort of thing when you travel a lot. Nothing looks like Vegas. It’s distinctive.
False advertisement. You only drove to the Sahara. 😛
FRAGaLOT said, yes, there are mobile billboards that drive around all the time, esp. during CES and other conventions.
i’m in vegas right now… i come most every year for that last part of the football season and the playoffs… go steelers.. i love vegas this time of year… kinda quiet, cool weather, beautiful nights, the mountain biking and rock climbing at red rocks is killer… i could see high tech startups moving here… everything is about one third the cost of the bay area and more chicks than a geek with a calculator can count.
Nice video John… why didn’t you play a cd while you were driving?
I have not been there since 1970. I am sure that it has changed but in all honesty I really do not recall what it looked like back then. I was on my “Victory In Nam” tour and not real cognizant of my surroundings, or so I have been told.
I like it. Even the radio stations.
Start a video series where people cruise in cars or walk along favorite haunts. Then, collect them in a database. Compare them over time.
#6 Grandpa – The prices probably reflect the fact that few people are gambling. Hence, the casinos raise the prices of room and board.
This video reminds me of the one they found a while back, which was recorded a few days before The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Just ordinary footage at the time, but 100 years from now, these kind of long shots will be interesting to look back on. Also, for someone who hasn’t been to Las Vegas in years, I am surprised at how long the strip is now!
Nice!
I was there a few years ago, when City Center was under construction. I get to see the site at night, it was so large I was stunned. Yo have to see it to believe it.
Link > http://www.citycenter.com/
I guess it was the sheer size and number of building under construction at the same time.
Even ground zero in NYC didn’t amaze me as much, maybe when they get further along.
Corrected spelling, my bad, sorry.
I was there a few years ago, when City Center was under construction. I got to see the site at night, it was so large I was stunned. You have to see it to believe it.
Link > http://citycenter.com/
I guess it was the shear size and number of buildings under construction at the same time.
Even ground zero in NYC didn’t amaze me as much. Maybe when they get further along.
In the wonderful and magical state of Nirvana.